Jon Napier joins ISAF Secretariat as Competitions Manager

by ISAF on 14 Feb 2013 Jon Napier has now joined the Secretariat of the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) in the role of Competitions Manager. Jon is particularly responsible for ISAF Race Officials, ISAF Women's Match Racing World Championship, ISAF World Match Racing Tour, ISAF Nations Cup, ISAF Team Racing Championship and supports the busy Competitions department.

The Competitions Department is responsible for supporting a wide range of ISAF activities. The department works closely with ISAF Committees and Commissions, the IOC, event organisers, the Olympic Classes and race officials from around the world.

The department is directly responsible for the day to day management of the Olympic Games and all ISAF Events. Developing International Race Officials around the world, managing the Events Calendar, publishing the World Rankings and developing the Racing Rules of Sailing are other key activities.

Jon started sailing from an early age and grew up involved in yacht racing on the River Clyde in Scotland, and then latterly on the South Coast in England.

In 2006 he started judging dinghy racing in the UK and in 2007 became involved in umpiring both match and team racing events. He is a national umpiring assessor and instructor for team racing in Great Britain and is heavily involved in the running of the Great Britain university team racing circuit.

He qualified as an ISAF International Judge in 2007 and as an ISAF International Umpire in 2008. Since then he has been officiating regularly in the Olympic Classes (including the Sailing World Cup, the Finn Gold Cup and the ISAF Sailing World Championships in Perth last year) and he was the Jury Secretary at the 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition in Weymouth.

'I am very pleased to be joining ISAF to work in this exciting role,' said Jon.

'Having worked as a race official for many years, I am looking forward to working with my colleagues from all around the world to help improve and develop race officiating in sailing. I am also looking forward to delivering ISAF's programme of fleet, match and team racing events and supporting the work of the Competitions ISAF website